Compendium on Energy
Conservation Legislation
in Countries of the Asia and Pacific Region
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Part
Three: Sectoral Overviews and Discussion Papers on
Application of Energy Conservation Laws and Regulations
Alternative Regulatory Mechanisms for the
Establishment of Energy Efficiency Standards for
Commercial and Institutional Buildings
by Josie Close*
SECTIONS IN THIS CHAPTER
Introduction
The growing service sector
The speculative scenario
Existing regulatory mechanisms
The holistic approach
Passive design principles
Computer simulations, validation techniques and
standardized programs
Renewable energy technologies
Flexible active systems
Construction strategies
Voluntary schemes
Conclusions
End Notes
The Asia and Pacific region is comprised of a wide diversity of economies: those emerging, those currently in transition, those already developed and those environmentally advanced. The full range of climatic regions is covered and the cultural heritage is enormous and varied. Governments differ in their political stability, their authority and the degree of development through the population of political power.
The economic "tigers" have stumbled and presently are restructuring their economies. Despite these setbacks, the region generally is expected to continue its economic rise. Some of the major construction projects have been cut but others continue although temporarily slowed by the economic draught in some locations.
Long-term electricity demand is expected to rise. In China, commercial energy use showed a twenty-fold increase between 1952 and 1990.(1) According to Asia Pacific Outlook's January 1997 report for the Southeast Asia region, a leading economic consultancy predicts energy demand will more than double by 2020 making the region the largest energy market in the world with prices rising as subsidies are removed. Asia will have to install 1,380 GW of new capacity by 2020 to meet the demand or stifle growth.(2)
Others researching energy demand note "electricity appears to be the energy carrier of choice for modern economies since growth in electricity has outpaced growth in demand for fuels. Demand is expected to rise especially sharply in developing countries. They are projected to experience almost fivefold increase in per capita electricity consumption. World demand for fuel, excluding fuel for generating electricity, is projected to increase 30 per cent between 1985 and 2050 and demand for electricity 265 per cent- equivalent to adding more than 50 large 1,000 megawatts-electric (MWE) plants each year." The same team also argued that with an intensive pursuit of both energy efficiency and aggressive deployment of renewable energy technologies (RETs) that "by the middle of the 21st century, renewable energy resources could account for three-fifths of the world's electricity market."(3) <return to top>
This paper is concerned with energy efficiency and conservation of commercial and institutional buildings and the regulatory means to assist the take-up of renewable energy since those technologies are competitive with conventional energy yet have all the environmental benefits.
The majority of economies in the region are "in transition". That means they are adding a growing service sector to their manufacturing and industrial base which results in the expansion of commercial buildings. Also, as nations become wealthier, governments become larger with more ministries and departments and more authorities and agencies; essentially the governmental service system. All these require buildings that consume energy — heating, cooling, lighting and power systems.
Even in temperate climates, cooling is becoming more important than heating due to the level of heat generated from occupants, business machinery and lighting. Advances in information technology and equipment related operations means both the commercial and governmental service sectors are increasingly dependent on business machines such as photocopiers and printers while the ratio of computers to staff in highly developed societies is nearly 1:1. It can therefore be expected that this ratio will become widespread.(4)
The commercial sector is often hand in hand with the real estate sector, seeking prime central sites for development. Since market economies predominate, it is the speculative scenario in which construction is a money-making commodity. Plot ratio and floor areas are maximized to achieve highest rentals and interlinked with cultural aspirations towards the developed world. That creates a rising market for "prestigious" buildings conforming to those expectations of wealth and affluence.(5)
Only in a few nations, Bhutan for example, has appreciation of local culture and heritage inhibited or regulated modern building construction. In other nations such as India, Malaysia, Singapore and Sri Lanka the wealth and subsequent confidence is beginning to result in new expressions of cultural identity shaped by climatic-responsive design most cogently advocated and practiced by Yeang.(6) <return to top>
The expectations mostly are for "international style" architecture with artificially controlled interior environments irrespective of the local building vernacular and climate. These expectations may be reinforced by outsiders, often multinational companies, setting up in developing countries and requiring premises of the same style as their accommodation at headquarters. The entrepreneurs are welcome as wealth-creating in an upwardly mobile society, introducing capital and contributing to the development of the nation. Unless controlled and constructed with sophisticated technologies, these buildings become high energy consumers in order to maintain comfortable interior conditions.
In addition to the commercial sector and the governments' administrative service sector, there is also a range of institutions — educational, cultural and sports facilities together with the highly energy intensive healthcare establishments. From an energy perspective, these are important for two reasons: a) in developed countries it is the commercial sector that is driving peak energy demand(7) and it is expected that developing nations will follow this trend; and b) many institutional buildings have extended hours of energy consumption, while others, particularly hospitals, are intensive in their energy demands, having a 24-hour, every-day-of-the-year requirement. The airport/rail terminal might be regarded as the commercial sector equivalent of this heavy energy use. In some societies, where the tourist industry is dominant, hotels and shopping malls also come into this category.
Clearly, energy efficiency regulations covering these building categories are important. Reviewing the means to those energy savings, and in the widest possible terms, including the application of renewable energy technologies, can have a considerable impact on overall energy consumption, most particularly on the peak electricity demand.
4 Existing regulatory mechanisms
Regulations concerning buildings were initially health and safety related such as sanitation, fire protection, and structural integrity, but these have been added to as societies' living standards and construction techniques develop. Since the oil crises of the 1970s, legislation has been introduced covering energy issues. Those energy regulations generally covered insulation, whether to keep heat in or out depending on the climate, and were intended to reduce energy consumption. <return to top>
Following the 1987 Brundtland Conference(8) and the1992 Rio Earth Summit(9), concern for climate change led to subsequent measures specifically targeted at reducing CO2 emissions and improving combustion in fossil fuel processes together with phasing out of ozone depleting refrigerants in electrical heating/cooling systems and developing alternatives. Concern for depletion of the Earth's resources ensured continued efforts to improve the effectiveness of a building's external envelope. These were generally translated into overall thermal transmittance values (OTTVs) which included the improved performance of a building's service systems, heating or cooling temperatures, the percentage of fresh air circulated, lighting levels and maximum values for heating/cooling and ventilation systems in kilowatt hours per square meter and consumption of lighting in watts per square meter.
In the 1970s, sustainability issues revived development of new and renewable energy technologies as alternatives to fossil fuels. Research into their costs relative to the broader implications or "externalities" of fossil fuel energy revealed wider issues and the environmentally advanced societies began a radical re-appraisal of the way the world's resources are used, extending that review of energy use in all its ramifications to ensure low-energy-use communities and not just low-energy-use commercial and institutional buildings.(10)
What then are the alternative regulatory mechanisms that are being adopted or should/could be adopted? Generally there must be an holistic approach to development, development in its widest associations and not just buildings, so that there is a national energy policy integrated and applied throughout all other departments and agencies without conflict with other regulations. Education, health, transport, jobs, finance, trade, industry and security will all be integrated into that development policy as well as the need for a steady reliable energy supply ensuring economic growth that benefits all members of society.
5.1 Development policy and environmental impact assessments
Generally that development, or redevelopment, will tend towards medium to high density (these are relative terms), maximizing land use and minimizing the tarmac, cables and sewage pipes of the infrastructure. The growth of cities in the region explains the attraction of towns and cities for job opportunities and wealth creation among people moving away from a low income agriculture-based life. Strategies presently favored are based on "mixed use" rather than "zoned" development so that distances are reduced between home and school or work, with shops, cafes and places of entertainment and healthcare facilities conveniently nearby. Such development must also be integrated with public transport systems, thus minimizing journeys and the need for personal transport. <return to top>
The out-of-town green-field site with lower land value, fewer problems, initial appeal and lower capital costs attracts the speculative developer. But the long-term energy costs of extended journey times and car expenses needs to be set against the admitted higher costs of redevelopment of the inner town/city "brown" site.
Initial construction cost is only about 9 per cent of a development's lifetime costs without the additions of travel/tarmac/time. It requires long-term master-planning policies to defend such strategies and strong legislation to protect green areas from environmental degradation together with incentives to redevelop the "brown" sites. To achieve this, current planning and building regulations as well as the fiscal framework will need to be in accord. This strategy was given much impetus by the suggested requirement that environmental impact assessments (EIAs) be set up as publicly aired planning procedures for each country's Agenda for the 21st century.
The degree of support given to such processes depends much on the commitment of individual governments, the environmental education and awareness of societies, and the strength of lobbying groups such as government opposition, the media, and community interest groups within society to press for the statements to be effected. EIAs create the opportunity for all sectors of society to participate in the development process. Intended as planning procedures in advance of construction, the high cost of remedial measures, if imposed, is intended to be sufficient disincentive to prevent the environmental loss occurring.
It requires a high degree of "transparency" for such procedures to be effective and cut across traditional vested interests or autonomous government. EIAs are important in these broad-based energy issues related to development and infrastructure decisions. In a direct building-related aspect, EIAs also have the potential to provide both the tools for community planning based on daylight and sunlight access and the regulatory mechanisms for equity in access to free energy.
5.2 The utilities structure, deregulation and renewable energy resources
A steady reliable energy supply assists economic growth and most governments have exerted considerable effort to set up a national supply system. However, there is now a worldwide trend towards the privatization of utilities, particularly the energy supply. This is important in revealing, and canceling, the enormous subsidies with which governments propped up their inefficient national generating and distribution systems. Conventional electricity conversion processes already have a low maximum efficiency such that even super-sophisticated coal-gasified technology is not expected to achieve more than 52 per cent while the total efficiency of the complete system, including distribution, in a developed country such as the United Kingdom does not achieve more than 27 per cent efficiency.(11) <return to top>
Alternative generation methods with higher efficiencies such as combined heat and power (CHP) which can achieve 80 per cent maximum efficiency, plus shorter and better quality (i.e. new technology) distribution systems are required. Privatization, by its nature, requires efficient operation or the company will go out of business. Economic considerations favor smaller localized generation systems with lower set-up costs, quicker pay-backs and shorter distribution lines. Those independent of the rising operation costs inherent in fossil fuel systems clearly have potential.
These changing concepts of energy resources also include the diversity of RETs. That and the management of energy demand usually referred to as Demand-side Management (DSM) are all within the regulatory control of governments for it is governments that set up the structures and controlling bodies for private utilities. It is therefore within their regulatory powers to require utilities to operate DSM programs and to buy at equal rates electricity generated by RETs. In 1978, Public Utilities Regulatory Policy Act (PURPA) of the United States set down such a policy and boosted the development of a range of benign technologies.(12) The world is presently benefiting from that enlightened legislation and the wealth of research and experience arising from subsequent practice and development.
In the late 1980s, the Government of the United Kingdom promoted the Non-Fossil Fuel Obligation (NFFO) in a series of tenders for the supply of electricity to the year 2018. It similarly supported the commercialization of new technologies bringing small-scale hydropower, wind farms, biomass and municipal solid waste schemes into the electricity generating grid at competitive prices.(13) The success of the scheme, both in the number of companies tendering and also in their fulfillment of contracted electricity capacity, surprised everyone. It reinforced the concept that small utility companies, farms with biomass incinerators or organic digesters, communities, hospitals and university campuses with CHP installations, or buildings and institutions with integral photovoltaic systems and/or wind turbines can be part of the electricity generation process and earn income. Every building should be conceived as an energy creator rather than solely a consumer.
5.3 DSM programmes, net-metering schemes and tariff incentives for peak shaving
Through the regulatory mechanisms imposed by governments on utility companies, the companies are looking for new ways to reduce their costs and not build more electricity generating stations. Increasingly sophisticated DSM programs have resulted. DSM programs aim to reduce electricity consumption generally and peak demand consumers in particular because that is electricity expensive to generate, requiring fast response technology but requiring it only for short periods. Targeting those consumers driving demand, and particularly peak demand, is crucial to an effective DSM program. Commercial and institutional buildings are in that category. <return to top>
The United States' longer experience with energy privatization and RETs means most examples of effective DSM programs are from that country. DSM programs initially focused on energy conservation with utilities encouraging contractors to construct super-insulated buildings and subcontractors to ensure all lighting installations used latest technology lamps and starters. Then programs offered incentives such as off-peak low-price tariffs to shift demand. Currently, DSM programs encourage consumers to generate their own electricity and feed it into the grid.
The PV-USA group combines 89 utilities with photovoltaic manufacturers to promote building integrated photovoltaics (BIPV) to generate electricity for direct use or connection to the grid in the urban context. To further promote this idea of consumers contributing to the electricity supply, in 1995, three states, California, Hawaii, and New York, legislated that utilities must operate net-metering schemes. Utilities are required to buy back electricity at the same rate at which they sell it. This created an additional incentive to generate electricity to sell to the grid.(14)
Air-conditioning peak demand matches electricity peak demand. Some United States utilities are already making financial deals with commercial consumers to lower peak demand. However solar radiation also matches those peak demands and the potential for solar air-conditioning has long been recognized. A program sponsored by Sacramento Urban District (SMUD) is researching solar generated absorption chiller systems in a demonstration project. Simulation studies have already indicated that these systems are now competitive with gas or oil-generated equivalents. (15) This technology is discussed in more detail in section 8.2. The indications are that RETs are becoming the new opportunities for utilities in electricity management and that the commercial and institutional sectors, the peak consumers, are where most attention for savings is currently being focused.
5.4 Integrated resource planning including renewable energy technologies
Government regulations control the infrastructure of the utilities and their supply rules. De-regulation and re-regulation that opens up the potential for alternative generating sources while legislating the purchase of alternatively generated electricity at equal prices makes RETs competitive with conventional fuels. Commercial and institutional buildings can potentially generate electricity by using a variety of new and renewable technologies.
The concept of integrated resource planning (IRP) aims to include all these resources in the utilities supply programme. However, connecting them to the grid requires more than legislation. Safety and the quality of electricity are as critical as reliability of supply to an electricity generating company. Broadening the scope of electricity generation from the easy-to-forecast, easy-to-control conventional fossil fuel systems to include diverse, intermittent renewable energy resources is a challenge.
Until recently solar radiation had been dismissed as too variable to be considered a capacity resource (i.e. a regular source of substantial contribution). Utilities require a plus or minus 5 per cent accuracy for risk reduction. <return to top>
Climatologists generally require a 30-year database in forecasting but are now acknowledging the value of short-term five year surveys in predicting climate change. Setting up monitored weather stations is therefore a critical part of forecasting and the ability to maximize local renewable energy sources. It needs to be promoted by governments or their agents.
The 1993 report by the United States National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) confirmed that intermittent resources can be integrated into grid supply "without apparent adverse effect". Based on studies done during the past 10 years by the United States Department of Energy, the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) and other interested and related organizations, that important report also countered negative preconceptions regarding hardware costs, safety and electricity quality aspects. The report stated that conservative attitudes and rigid mindsets, often described as institutional, are the barriers to acceptance rather than problems with the technologies.(16) Clearly, the ability to make use of RETs requires this additional supporting framework of source analysis which every government regulatory authority must set up to best benefit from its local renewable energy resources.
5.5 Government incentives and dissemination of influence
A government's regulatory control over utilities and their DSM programs also affects the technologies adopted by the utilities as well as the conservation programs offered to consumers. Through taxation systems, credits, rebates, accelerated depreciation, and even the relative favourability of differing accounting procedures, governments, not so subtly, affect their desired outcome. Government-owned building stock then presents opportunities for demonstration projects of new technologies and the dissemination of their successes to a wider segment of the community. In June 1997, the Government of the United States topped earlier national demonstration projects by first Germany (1,000 roofs) then Japan (500,000 roofs) in their commitment to "a million roofs" PV projects, the majority of those coming from government building stock.
The powers of government can regulate, and through fiscal measures influence, both utilities and consumer behavior to follow its policy lead. In funding the research, assisting development of the products and creating (by legislation) markets for the products, governments then boost the commercialization of favored schemes. That complete sequence is evident in the United States Government's support for RETs and particularly PV. But the advanced environmental societies generally use a tripartite approach of government, business and research together developing products in support of government policy. Japan and Germany are skilled at this as their respective support for amorphous silicon and daylight enhancing technologies has shown. An alternative regulatory mechanism therefore exists through a government's role as educator and enabler of projects, ideas and technologies. <return to top>
Why is it important to emphasize these necessary changes to the planning and development process, the utilities structure, the fiscal framework and the appropriate commercial products? Because unless the planning and utilities regulatory framework is in place, and the systems and products available, designs maximizing energy efficiency are unlikely to be achieved. But, when these are in place, what other alternative regulatory mechanisms establish energy efficiency standards in commercial and institutional buildings?
Fundamental to energy efficiency and conservation strategies is the maximizing of passive design principles, thus eliminating unnecessary active systems and therefore energy consumption. To do that effectively, it is necessary to reappraise current design practices and standards, reassessing their current validity. Some were introduced during the era of deep plan/low energy costs when active environmental control systems were advocated as the most cost effective. Maximizing passive design principles includes:
a) Planning and siting of individual buildings to be climate responsive at both macro- and micro-scale;
b) Being aware of the seasons, temperatures and winds resulting from the geographical latitude of the site;
c) Being responsive to the intimate locality of winds and sunshine/shade from adjacent trees, water or buildings;
d) Orientation to trap solar heat gain in cold climates with "winter gardens" and building mass for heat sinks;
e) Providing buffer walls and shading against solar heat gain in hot climates;
f) Narrow plans and tall storey heights for daylight penetration;
g) Openable windows for ventilation;
h) Detailed design of window positions to enhance ventilation;
i) Courtyards with vegetation to modify the air supply; and
j) Appropriate location of stairs to reduce lift demand. <return to top>
Existing building regulations have developed in piecemeal form, addressing issues but not in a comprehensive way. For instance OTTV's concern for the building envelope affects window size and its glazing, thus reducing daylight transmission, yet daylight is more efficient than even the most advanced new artificial lighting technologies.(17) Current ideas focus on the overall performance in prescriptive standards, allowing flexibility in how that is achieved rather than being specific on particular aspects. Indeed computer simulations have shown that in some situations the variation of external envelope has less impact on energy consumption than internal design strategies.
7 Computer simulations, validation techniques and standardized programs
A factor in promoting passive design is that traditional design strategies, once widely practiced and accepted, have fallen into disuse. Skeptics require validation that these traditional approaches work. The solution in both cases is the wider use of computer simulation programs to check the energy performance of designs. Having that validation process also permits the exploration of less conventional solutions both to existing building types and to new situations because the response and energy use can, and should be, modeled in advance. Programs are now sophisticated, combining numerical and visual assessments with greater memory and faster response permitting more detailed (hour by hour) understanding of a building's response and therefore the when, where and how that energy is consumed.
Closer integration of an architect's and service engineer's efforts to develop designs from inception that conform to good passive design principles will then require less active systems to regulate the interior environment. Achieving a standardization of the computer programs used and the set-up of a network of agencies capable of providing energy design advisory information is critical to the effectiveness of pre-construction assessment. It should be a requirement, part of planning and building regulations approval, that energy consumption of every design be assessed by measuring its performance in simulated scenarios. As experience using the procedure increases, both the regulating authority and designers will get a better understanding of low-energy design. It would also encourage designers to use such design tools from inception.
Getting to that situation will require the advice of independent energy design advisors with both design and energy program skills. Government recognition of their abilities as licensed agencies would regulate the process, ensuring standards. Bringing this into the early stages of regulatory approval would raise the importance of energy performance in the design process and standardized programs would permit the comparison of the performance of different designs for building types, thus strengthening the association of visual design with numerical results. <return to top>
Equally important is the post-construction monitoring of the building to ensure that each building performs as intended in the design. This too should be part of the regulations procedure so that buildings are required to submit a post-construction audit with the design engineers who should also be the monitors. Too often the operations engineers are different from the design engineers. First-hand experience of the design's performance is important feedback for future design work. If there is integration of the design and auditing process, and preferably they are the same team, then more energy conscious designs are likely to evolve more quickly.
These approaches are vastly different from the way the majority of commercial premises in the speculative scenario are presently designed and constructed with first-cost having an over-riding influence on the design and construction methods. Those market forces work generally in opposition to all the necessary approaches of low-energy design. Changing designers' remuneration from project-cost based to energy-savings based would require a direct relationship between design and post-construction audits. Since energy-efficient design is likely to take more time yet result in less installed systems, the project costs will be lower. If fees remain linked to project costs there is no incentive to change the design approach. That will require changes to current professional institute fee codes. However government and local authorities generate many projects and their commissions need to be based on these revised fee standards. Since the design professions are committed to concepts of sustainability, there is no reason why the professions themselves should not also instigate revised fee scales based on this approach especially when supported by the building approvals process described above.(18)
8 Renewable energy technologies
8.1 Daylight
If the re-appraisal of "comfort" standards is one overlooked and under-appreciated strategy in energy conservation for commercial and institutional buildings, benefiting from daylight is another. Daylight has "added value" as both an energy and CO2 emissions saving strategy. Daylight avoids the use of electrical energy required for artificial lighting. It also saves on the cooling load of the interior space. Diffuse daylight has the highest efficacy, the relationship of light to heat in lumens per watt. Sunlight has 30 per cent less. The relative efficacy of different artificial lighting is shown in Figure 3.1.1.
Studies investigating current commercial developments in developed countries indicate that 20-25 per cent of a commercial building's energy is in the lighting installation. Percentages vary by building type. According to studies by Beltran and others, a 14 per cent savings is achievable if a sophisticated sensor operated artificial lighting system linked to daylighting levels is installed.(19) Fortunately recent developments in sensor design and production have reduced their cost and increased their sensitivity, making linked daylight/artificial lighting installation viable. (20) <return to top>
How does one maximize daylighting? First, by appreciating and optimizing the local conditions. Latitude will influence the length of daylight hours. Daylight hours in locations within 23° north/south of the equator match the conventional eight-hour office working day throughout the year.
Strategies vary with geography and climate according to the extent of
sunshine, and therefore heat, that is acceptable. Heat is unwanted in the tropics but in
other latitudes the warmth can be welcome and is another form of passive design.
Daylighting can be extremely technical as there are many variables, but suffice to say
that an average overcast winter sky (i.e., worst conditions) has a brightness 17-30 times
the 300 lux indoor illumination needed for an average task.
8.1.1 Mandatory daylighting codes
Regulatory mechanisms therefore need to acknowledge the potential energy savings inherent in daylight by requiring that buildings are designed to maximize it. Many countries already have daylighting codes in their building and planning legislation. But the ease, relative cheapness and convenience of artificial lighting have caused them to fall into disuse. This is the case in Hong Kong where most applicants request a waiver for new commercial premises. Designing for daylight affects not just the plan form (narrow plans permit double-sided light penetration) but also storey height, internal structural supports and position, and the detailed design of the building envelope. Overall building volume also affects daylight access for neighboring buildings.
Current research endorses higher storey heights and broader interiors for increasing light penetration into interior spaces. Modelled exterior facades, including sun-shades, light shelves, split windows separating the viewing function from the lighting function, and sophisticated light deflecting techniques can all contribute to improved interior daylighting. Initially evaluated in simulated studies, these techniques are now being incorporated into built examples.(21)
8.1.2 Mandatory daylighting codes affect urban development
Designing and building to optimize daylight with light shelves, shades and light deflecting devices is more costly to construct and requires more time and skill in the design. Regulations requiring its implementation are needed because cheaper but more energy dependent solutions are available. Reviving or introducing statutory legislation covering interior daylight factors in town planning legislation is fundamental. It needs to be mandatory for all buildings, including those in the commercial and institutional sector. Conservation of daylight access, however the neighborhood evolves, needs to be strictly enforced in urban planning design through daylight access codes. <return to top>
Established design tools such as pepper-pot diagrams and daylight protractors still have their role in facilitating daylight design but they are likely to be overtaken by computer programs as the technology becomes more widely used. Modern computers with large memory and high speed are facilitating the development of 3-dimensional graphic systems to visually explore the urban planning implications of daylight and sunlight access. This is particularly relevant in the re-development of existing areas to higher density levels when plot ratios and the urban scale are revised. The systems also have a function in setting up the initial design parameters for new communities, towns and cities.
Energy conservation measures are as important as geographical features,
transport and services systems in generating urban design, valuing daylight access and
regulating its inclusion in the layout and form of new communities. All planning
professionals and government planning departments must ensure "equity for all"
in the development process. The implications are particularly important for countries in
transition where construction is a major industry and the energy demand per capita is
predicted to increase five-fold. A 3-dimensional graphic system is likely to soon become a
design and planning tool widely used by all planning departments — an integral part
of new regulatory procedures to conserve energy by maximizing passive design on the urban
scale.
8.1.3 Marketing daylight
With increasing privatization and the lifting of electricity subsidies, the economic advantages of daylighting will be most effective in promoting it. Computer simulations assessing alternative strategies will identify the savings resulting from maximizing daylight for the consumer. This strategy will be effective for countries in transition. In developed countries where the speculative development scenario is established and land values, rents and salaries are higher, the relative price of non-subsidized electricity will be less effective.
Mandatory daylight codes for commercial and institutional buildings will profoundly impact on the design of buildings, requiring developers to change their present curtain walling formula. Alternative solutions to the "maximum floor rental/minimum wall thickness for maximum profit" standard need to be devised with appropriate incentives to encourage the change. Environmentally advanced societies are developing marketing strategies aimed at identifying and therefore raising the prestige and value of good environmental design. Their success depends on the comparative prosperity and education of society. <return to top>
8.2 Sunlight
Sunlight is another under-appreciated energy resource. The sun gets in the way of better use of daylight, especially in tropical and sub-tropical climates, where it is often viewed as a problem rather than an asset. However, sunlight is free energy, and although frequently intermittent and highly variable, it is nevertheless a benign source. The solar constant, the amount of energy beamed down to earth in direct sunlight, is accepted at 1,367 W/m2, although 1,000 W/m2 is taken as the convenient average that gets through the atmosphere on a clear day in summer. By comparison, diffuse light is approximately 48 W/m2. The value of sunlight is not just as a factor in the passive design of buildings but also as a replacement for traditional, usually fossil fuel based, energy supplies that can be integrated into the design of buildings in all sectors as well as larger-scale community developments.
8.2.1 Solar thermal
Solar radiation is commonly applied either as heat energy in solar thermal or as electrical energy in photovoltaics. In solar thermal applications with flat plate collectors, the solar radiation is used to heat water systems and, even if the final required temperature is not achieved, the energy saving contribution to conventional heating systems is worthwhile. This has obvious applications for all residential, commercial and institutional buildings but is especially useful for hospitals, hotels and residential institutions with high water consumption. This relatively cheap form of water heating can extend the seasonal use of public facilities like swimming pools, heating the water for a negligible cost once the capital cost is expended.
In September 1995, Berlin's city administration required all new developments to incorporate solar thermal systems for domestic water supply. There is no reason why every local building authority should not also legislate for solar thermal water heating in the same way. Likewise, Japan's 500,000-roof programme includes a proportion of solar thermal panels in the photovoltaic module roof. In Southern China, Guangdong province, the Guangzhou Institute of Energy Conservation includes a workshop for the manufacture of solar thermal collectors which are sold to industries and homeowners in the city and local district. These governments and local authorities recognize the long-term value of solar thermal in reducing CO2 emissions and dependence on fossil fuels for basic services. <return to top>
8.2.2 Solar thermal applied to active systems
The intensity of research on solar thermal is targeting the fundamentals of current buildings — their increasing demand for electricity and growing dependence on air-conditioning. In the search for more efficient energy conversion systems, the steam-driven Rankine engine has been revived and modified for combined heat and power (CHP) applications using solar energy as the heat source. To achieve the high temperatures necessary to generate steam, solar tracking arrays systems have been required and they are very orientation sensitive. Integrated compound parabolic concentrator (ICPC) solar collectors achieve the high temperatures necessary without tracking.
In addition to CHP installations, ICPC solar collectors are being used with double-effect absorption chillers for cooling systems and are competitive with natural gas and oil-generated systems in many climates. The major advantage of this system is that it has no moving parts as no tracking is required. Double-effect chillers require temperatures in excess of 150 degrees Centigrade. The "double" refers to double the cooling for a given amount of input energy.
In the United States where the commercial sector is driving the peak demand for electricity, some utilities have created monetary incentives, particularly to reduce air-conditioning load on the electricity grid. The ICPC solar collectors combined with double-effect absorption chillers research, partially sponsored by NREL, is being investigated in a commercialization development program jointly funded by the Sacramento Municipal Utility District (SMUD), the University of Chicago Energy Solar Group and a United States air-conditioning manufacturer. These benign technologies exist and are maturing but require new regulatory mechanisms to legislate their implementation or to provide, as in the case of the United States, the incentives for utilities to include renewable energy technologies in their DSM programs.
8.3 Photovoltaics
PV technology, sometimes called solar electric, is presently receiving an enormous boost from environmentally advanced and developing societies around the world since it is a mature technology yet continually developing. It is already cost-beneficial in remote areas and increasingly competitive in the urban context for grid-connected electricity. PV is the direct generation of electricity from the electromagnetic energy in light. It is the RET currently receiving much support because it is inherently applicable to the full range of building types and both roofs and cladding. <return to top>
The important concept is building integrated PV (BIPV). Instead of the PV module on top or in front of the original building component, the BIPV module replaces it with significant cost reductions. The PV is not then just a building component of equal and in some case lesser cost — it also has the "added value" of generating electricity. Initially, production focused on roofing materials but cladding applications have also been encouraged with the development of PV panels which cost the same or less than the finishes customary in contemporary urban structures.
Present techniques for manufacturing the latest technological developments facilitate large scale PV production appropriate for the modular construction of contemporary commercial and institutional buildings. However, the variety of suitable substrates also permits the production of PV cells on traditional products such as the roof shingle. Recent additions to anti-reflection coatings permit alternative colors to the conventional blue of polycrystalline technology, making PV applications acceptable in heritage-sensitive locations too.
The relative maturity of the technology is clear not only from the diversity and effort to make its application widely acceptable, but also from the steady reductions in costs while improving conversion efficiency. A major producer now gives a 20-year warranty on their modules, further confirming reliability.(22) A review of 10 years of large scale PV systems covering 80 field tests and 35 installations reported non-production from only 6.5 per cent of 68,739 modules tested and half of those were due to wiring system components rather than the module itself.
8.4 Photovoltaic regulations — conservation of solar access
In photovoltaics, the opportunity exists for governments to promote the integration of an appropriate sustainable development technology into every new development that will permit a level of self-generated electricity. Whether feeding into the grid or for stand-alone use, they will modify the predicted intense demand for electricity in the future. They may eventually become as natural a part of building development as installing a water supply and appropriate sanitation provisions.
PV use might be legislated in the same way, according to occupancy and building use. Moreover the urban design planning strategies for daylight access can also be applied by modifying the access angles to be applicable for sunlight too. Already some societies have appreciated the importance of sunshine in making parks and community areas more pleasing and more widely used. For the same reason, sunny streets in cold climates also come to life. <return to top>
Some of the states in the United States have already legislated for "solar fences" to ensure solar access to property.(23) Conservation of each development site's solar access for legislated sunlight hours per day throughout the year is also being considered both as an energy source and as the "right" of each land owner/user. Creating equity in solar access is the intention.
Requiring each planning application to submit design proposals for review using the planning authority's 3-dimensional design and planning tool would enable the applicant, the neighbors and the planning authority to know the implications of the proposed development in terms of its impact on adjoining properties at any hour of any day in the year. The simulation would enable revisions to be made in advance of construction. This would graphically visualize planning regulations, making that knowledge accessible to all and ensuring that nothing proposed would adversely affect past or future developments.(24)
8.5 Embedded energy in waste
That radical review of energy in its widest possible terms has also considered the energy embedded in every kind of waste. Buildings and their usage generate a lot of waste: the refuse discarded every day; the waste related to bodily functions and cleansing routines and the energy inherent in all construction materials and demolition waste. The extent of this embedded energy is now being realized and technologies developed to retrieve it. The prime method is recycling.
Different building types will offer different opportunities for capturing embedded energy depending on the building's use. This is particularly true for commercial and institutional buildings. Residential institutions will have a high volume of water consumption and will generate quantities of organic waste from food preparation and disposal. By contrast, commercial buildings' waste content is most likely to be paper and packaging. Opportunities for extracting the energy from this waste already exist but buildings need to be designed to facilitate the easy collection of the different wastes for recycling systems. Additions to current building regulations are required to make these standard practice in all new developments as well as in the rehabilitation of existing premises.
Due to local shortages or lack of indigenous raw materials, the informal collection of paper and aluminum cans is often already in place because those materials already have a recycling market. There needs to be a much more widespread appreciation of the potential of recycling materials and this can be assisted by legislating a set percentage of recycled material in products. The percentages can be adjusted over time. Such legislation not only creates a market and therefore value for the collection of materials, but it can also instigate the production of goods entirely from recycled materials. The collection and sorting processes also create jobs which can provide an income for unskilled labor. New industries are being set up specifically to make use of recycled materials. For example, furniture is being made from reconstituted cardboard or from tires. <return to top>
Fundamental to the ability to collect materials is the provision of storage space. Just as many countries require car parking space in their planning and building regulations, so there should be regulations covering the inclusion of storage space for materials to be recycled. Then there would be the ability to sort, at source, the materials generated by the building. For offices this is likely to be quantities of paper, but residential institutions are likely to have quantities of packaging, probably plastic and glass containers.
Participation by consumers is encouraged by the obvious incentive of the schemes. Given that the markets for recycled materials have already been created, then the income generated from collections would be repaid to consumers and might, in community facilities for instance, fund additional amenities. In the United States, companies which formerly paid for refuse collection managed to turn materials collection schemes into income earners.(25)
8.5.1 Municipal waste
Cities are becoming overwhelmed by the quantities of waste generated. Around the world, from Rio to Tel Aviv and from Sacramento to Salzburg, cities are devising schemes and developing processes to take advantage of technological advances to reprocess municipal waste rather than simply dumping it in landfills. Separating the different constituents is fundamental. In 1994, both Austria and Israel legislated that waste must be sorted at source. (Israel applies this to large cities only.) Former scavengers of Rio's waste sites are now on the city's payroll at the mixed waste composting facility.
Sorting at source strategically involves the consumer and enhances awareness of recycling values. Sorting the types of glass (clear, green, brown) and the seven grades of plastic improves the quality of the recycled product, extracting maximum benefit from the waste. The problems of plastics recycling was in the degradation caused by mixing the many different types. Plastics are now coded by the manufacturer so that their sorting and recycling is made easier.(26) <return to top>
Separating organic from inorganic waste can now be directly applicable to on-site electricity generation. NREL and the city of Sacramento, California have pioneered the application of fuel cell technology and a "high-solids" digester which produces higher volumes of methane gas. The anaerobic digester and fuel cell technology have reached commercialization and it is possible to localize the generation of methane gas and thus electricity from organic waste. Much of the rest becomes a part of recycling schemes (see Figure 3.1.2).
Communities which were planned on the basis of public health laws for conventional disposal of drainage, sewerage and refuse will need revised codes of practice to take advantage of these new technologies. Both urban planning laws and building regulations need to be coordinated to facilitate localized waste reprocessing, thus minimizing dumping and maximizing the use of embedded energy in the waste. Refuse and refuse collection is a major headache for every sizable community, yet, when reappraised, can prove to be a profitable business, generating energy and creating new industries and jobs.
8.5.2 Construction and demolition waste
Salvaging materials from building sites is not new but generally applies to buildings of some architectural merit with features having value for their inherent design and craftsmanship such as flooring, staircases, balustrading, quality bricks, and roofing tiles. The concept of energy in general construction and demolition waste is only beginning to be widely acknowledged. Yet in the speculative scenario of inner city sites where land values can dramatically change, the realization of site potential and re-development of those sites results in buildings being demolished and replaced with higher density, often highrise structures. Unless controlled by stringent planning, controls can, as in the case of Hong Kong, lead to building lifecycles of merely 15 years.
When there is also a short-term leasing system, regular changes of tenancy with large interior refitting programs also result in quantities of demolition material and construction waste. The United States has pioneered building material recycling schemes. <return to top>
For example, the paper and lime of the gypsum board used for dry-wall construction is separated. The paper is shredded and sold for animal bedding, appropriate because it has already received anti-bacterial treatment. The lime is sold to farms to change the acidity of soils. Construction timbers can be reprocessed into compressed fiberboard, thereby creating local industries rather than importing new products. Metals, which have long had high "scrap" value and are scavenged in many societies, are now part of organized retrieval since the energy required to recycle the secondary material is considerably less than that required for processing new metal. Reprocessing aluminum requires only 10 per cent of the energy needed to process new raw material.
Alternatively, the problem of construction/demolition waste disposal has been addressed through the "polluter pays principle" which imposes substantial dumping charges to coerce businesses into recycling. Unfortunately this can be difficult to enforce. Strategies promoting incentives rather than penalties are beginning to be accepted as more successful, hence the development of recycling schemes. Again, the success of recycling construction and demolition waste depends on the creation of markets for recycled materials, making it worthwhile to collect and sort the materials. These markets can be generated by national or state legislation for recycled content in new materials.
How should this affect the regulatory mechanisms for commercial and institutional buildings? Land leases, and particularly government contracts, need to have clauses requiring sorting and separation of demolition and construction waste whenever the site is re-developed. The landlord/managing agent is then responsible for ensuring compliance by the contractors. Those organizations are better able to control on-site procedures and will have more at stake through loss of subsequent permits. Establishing such a clause as a standard condition in all land or tenancy leases immediately creates a requirement for all tendering demolition contractors.
At the same time the sorting/separating of waste is introduced to leases, local building regulations must also require set content of recycled materials in the products used. This concept, as in municipal refuse, has the potential for creating new industries to reprocess materials and thus new jobs. Once the concept is well established, the recycled content can be increased.
However, the quality of the newly processed material is very dependent on the ability to separate materials and can result in products of inferior grade. In order to overcome this, products are being created with the stipulation that they be easily recycled without heavy energy expenditure or loss of performance or quality. <return to top>
This emphasis on passive design and the continued refinement of techniques to support passive design will reduce dependence on active systems. More efficient use of daylighting requires less cooling which, in turn, needs to be provided by more flexible systems responsive to climatic and seasonal changes. Active systems should be monitored to ensure their efficient performance.
Radical reviews of energy use have also analyzed active building systems. They have shown that frequently the installed system is designed for peak load but operates at less than peak performance the majority of the time. The equipment's rated coefficient of performance (COP) is rarely achieved because equipment rarely operates at its optimum.
Fundamental changes also are necessary in the active systems to facilitate using smaller components, fans and engines, each operating at maximum capacity. That means higher capital outlay costs but reduced energy demand and therefore a lower lifecycle cost. It is because of this kind of conflict that speculative developers require some fiscal incentives, such as accelerated depreciation on environmental installations, to induce them to adopt environmentally beneficial practices. Accelerating the depreciation does not cost a government more, it only brings the savings in earlier to those taxed.
Economies in transition tend to move away from craftsmanship to mass labor construction projects. Boosted by speculative development urging a fast return on borrowed money, construction is dominated by capital cost. That has supremacy over long-term energy saving techniques and installations. The realities of construction life is that often specified equipment is modified by "non-availability", "late-delivery" or a lower cost "look-alike" but not "performance-like" alternative in order to meet thecrucial programme
Regulations, standards, and of course wider application of appliance and component standards, will help to overcome this problem and is part of the value of increasing educational standards and particularly the energy education of society generally. It is especially important to raise education standards of the construction industry. Manual laborers often have the lowest level of education. <return to top>
Observation of site practice shows that all operations have huge wastage (loss of human and material energy) simply by workforce ignorance requiring many procedures to be repeated. Raising the education of the workforce, increasing its caliber, and reducing errors (take down and rebuild syndrome) will achieve better and faster quality as well as savings on wastage. The trend towards factory fabrication, initiated because it leads to faster on-site construction with craned in units, is also changing the workforce and increasing quality control. Wet-trades (concrete) are more tolerant of error, while timber, steel and pre-fabricated techniques are less generous and require better quality workmanship and accuracy.
Construction should not be the dump of the lowest quality labor. We need to revive and retain the concept of master builders: people with pride in their skills and respected by others. Buildings are the heritage of a country's culture and the repository of energy too. We need to re-evaluate their present use not solely as a commodity on the property market to be traded like gold, oil or coffee beans, but endowed by the pride and skills of an educated workforce.
Broadening the concept to include education affects society too. Increasing energy awareness among the populace will enable non-regulatory schemes also to be effective. BREEAM, HK Beam, and BEPAC are voluntary and grade buildings for their environmental attributes. They are the equivalent of the appliance labeling scheme for buildings indicating energy performance and can generally be described as marketing tools in environmentally advanced societies promoting rentals or purchase on environmental assets. All the mentioned schemes are a bit different but set environmental criteria and have a point system for grading. As voluntary schemes, they can operate most effectively in societies with raised environmental consciousness but, with adequate publicity, can be part of the awareness-raising process too.
The purpose of this paper has been to promote a different concept of energy efficiency. Instead of dependence on an external supply of energy, with all the inefficiencies of transmission and distribution, buildings themselves should be designed as generators too, using all the developments in new and renewable energy technologies to achieve that. <return to top>
Becoming suppliers of energy and therefore income earners will drive the concept of energy efficiency in a far more cogent way and is more likely to improve efficiency in practice. The more energy saved will be the more income earned. And commercial and institutional buildings are specifically appropriate to assist in this because commercial buildings, and by deduction the tenants, are business orientated and can be considered amenable to commercial incentives. Institutional buildings, often government-linked, can be the demonstration projects promoting the wider implementation of policies set by the government. Their importance, as stated at the beginning of this paper, is in the commercial sector driving peak energy consumption and the institutional sector having intense energy demands.
Regulations should not be regarded as the only means to achieving energy efficiency and conservation. They can have a negative rather than a positive association. Regulations also require penalties for non-compliance.
General trends in legislation are towards performance related descriptions that permit more flexibility in the way the efficiency is achieved. Rather than creating large government bureaucracies in ever weightier legislation and enforcement procedures, it may be far better to offer ways whereby governments lead society through business opportunities to develop technologies and set-up businesses that promote energy efficient practice. By offering the incentives of business creation and profit, environmentally sound strategies will become common practice leading to slimmer governments with fewer members to fund, and with fewer reasons to "bend the rules".
This paper proposes that energy efficient regulations should be part of an holistic approach providing a framework for overall development, particularly important in infrastructure, transport and community planning. Fiscal incentives combined with planning and design tools will encourage the implementation of all appropriate RETs to create benign energy sources and reprocess the energy in existing materials and constructions. The result will be a savings on conventional fossil fuel generated electricity.
More design time and the skills of an integrated team of design professionals will assess the building through simulation techniques in advance of construction to maximize the passive approaches and minimize the active systems. Fees would be based on energy savings rather than project cost with extra bonuses for "super-savers". Included in the development would be appropriate electricity generating processes such as PV, wind turbines and anaerobic digesters in order to create a development that is self-supporting, or neutral, in energy terms or even trading in the surplus. That would be the ideal.
The building would be constructed of "easy to recycle" materials specially processed for reclamation when the building is demolished. Those materials would of themselves contain a percentage of recycled material. Design of every development would include areas for materials sorting and storage rather in the way that building complexes presently have parking provisions. There would be sorting at source, storage provisions and even some in-situ re-processing. <return to top>
Immediate post-construction energy audits would be part of the standard buildings approvals process on which there would be some kind of incentive to complete the procedures. In actual use, auditing might also be required at regular intervals in the same way that planes or lifts are regularly inspected as a "health check" on the environment. Incentives to upgrade "active" installations and equipment such as lighting, heating and cooling to latest energy-saver models would be expected to be part of utilities DSM programs and covered by the savings on energy bills.
A utopian ideal or a viable concept of sustainable development where all society is involved in promoting development, growth, and better living standards in equity for all and mindful of the heritage to be left for future generations? It is about a partnership between government and the community in a collaborative effort.
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(22) Ref. Sandia report - PV Field Stations Reliability. <return to place in text>
(23) Close, J., Solar Access Legislation for Hong Kong. <return to place in text>
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(26) McPhee; M., C&D Recycling in the Home Court, Biocycle, pp. 30-31, March 1996. <return to place in text>
*Department of Architecture
The University of Hong Kong
Pokfulam Road, Hong Kong, China
Phone: (825) 2523-7648
Fax: (825) 2523-0735
E-mail: pvhku@hkusub.hku.hk
<return to place in text>
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